How many people never answer phone calls from unknown numbers?

[Sunset]

We have a LONG (AI generated) message, all the spammers hang up before getting to the end... I guess they do this because if their auto-dialer actually waited for the end of the message, and everyone did this long message, spammers would only make 1/3 of the normal amount of calls per day.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I wonder if robos focus on traditional land-line exchanges. We get far more of them on our old land line number than on our cells. DW is a town supervisor, so we keep the land line for constituents. Otherwise we'd shut it down. Incoming calls are overwhelmingly robocalls.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

I leave the phone on Do Not Disturb permanently.

I return a call if need be.

 

[jazz4cash]

I only have a cell phone (no land line) and have it programed so all calls that come from someone other than numbers on my contact list go directly to voicemail. I only change this if I am expecting a call from a doctors office or something like that.

Same here. I don’t have to ignore because my phone for it for me. My ringer is turned off too. It os a bit of a pain to clear out the missed calls log. I get a out 8 per day on average. I asked Verizon for for outgoing only service but no luck. I still have the issue of DW calling just as Im about to checkout. How does she know?

 

[YB88]

I don't answer either, and generally that works out fine.

<old man ranting>
The ones that are frustrating are the corporate America calls ("Our time is important, you and your experience don't matter at all") --- medical related, service call for a scheduled appointment, whatever.

Many of these are fine too, but the really annoying ones are where they leave a message and you have to call them back and go through their artificial (un)intelligence initial screen ("We make it hell to reach a human representative") just to do something stupid. Such as to confirm an appointment you had made earlier, the presumption apparently being that you're not a responsible adult. Or to be notified of something you had already been told in person or otherwise.

I also really enjoy the many many corporate-initiated emails that have the text "no-reply" as part of the email address. "We can email you, but you have to jump through our gonzo hoops to contact us back".
</old man ranting>

Fun stuff.

But at any rate, I don't answer unknown calls.

 

[Ronstar]

I don’t answer any calls during days when I’m in my yard or shop because I don’t have my phone with me. Never answer calls from an unknown number. Almost all communication is by text. I seldom receive more than a couple of calls a week.

 

[rembrandt]

I usually block them.

 

[marko]

. I answer a few, only because the prefix is from where my mum lives.

Me too. Because I manage my brother's life at this point, I never know if it’s some doctor, therapist, pharmacy, or neighbor of his. Had the police call me the other day because he fell down out in the street. 90% of the time it's legit.

If it wasn't for him, the only person who calls me is DW.

 

[Midpack]

Same here, but a potential problem we ran into is that some people apparently just do not leave voicemails and do not realize how many people do not as a rule answer calls from unknown numbers.

I realize it’s possible, and acknowledge your example, but in 20 some odd years neither DW nor I have ever had any issue for lack of answering an unknown number. If I had not heard from a doctor, contractor or other within a few days of service - I’d call them. These days I get too many reminders from doctors, contractors, restaurants, airlines, hotels and others…

I’ll repeat, I am proactive in adding immediately to my contacts whenever necessary. Otherwise, I would miss calls I need to take.

 

[Lorenzo]

I realize it’s possible, and acknowledge your example, but in 20 some odd years neither DW nor I have ever had any issue for lack of answering an unknown number. If I had not heard from a doctor, contractor or other within a few days of service - I’d call them. These days I get too many reminders from doctors, contractors, restaurants, airlines, hotels and others…

I’ll repeat, I am proactive in adding immediately to my contacts whenever necessary. Otherwise, I would miss calls I need to take.

In this case, my wife was told to await a call from her doctor's office--the surgeon--the day before the scheduled surgery, so she did not take it upon herself to call earlier.

As far as either of us can recall, this was the first time that not answering an unknown number led to an irritating surprise (but fortunately nothing more consequential than that). So, it may only happen once in decades, but if and when it does, it can be annoying (or possibly worse). Just pointing that out. Other than adding the numbers of professionals and companies we have dealt with to a phone's contact list, there isn't much one can do but either answer the unknown calls or play the odds. It was a learning experience for us. In the future, if we get repeated calls from an unknown number in the days before some significant event we're anticipating, we might answer one.

 

[jollystomper]

We do not answer unknown calls. If someone really needs to get to us, we expect them to leave a message. This has never been an issue for medical related things or anything urgent. We are good at adding messages from new known sources to our landline and cell phone contacts list.

 

[6miths]

I usually ignore but if i do pick up will be a known area code and if not a number I recognize then I will pick up and not make a sound. Robocallers will hang up, most people will speak.

 

[CaliKid]

I can't imagine why anybody answers calls unless they know who it is. Most calls are spam these days. Heck, I don't answer most calls even if I do know who it is!

 

[Qs Laptop]

I suggest to those that do not answer phone calls from unknown numbers and believe that the caller will leave a voicemail to check your voicemail box to see if it's working. Don't just assume it's working, call it from a different number and test it out. I've run into a couple of friends that are unaware their voicemail isn't even working. It's impossible to alert them to this deficiency because they don't answer their phone. Nor do they respond to texts. (Luddites!)

 

[GenXguy]

I don't answer unknown callers unless I'm waiting for a specific caller and am not sure what number they will be calling from. Of course, I get very few unknown callers, and the phone even blocks some of them.

 

[Texas Proud]

My land line has the Spam? showing if it thinks it is spam..

Some number show but do not have the "V" showing it is a verified number... so do not answer them..

If a "V", it is how I am feeling... or if I am expecting to get a call from me calling to inquire about something... half the time it is spam but I hang up quickly...

My cell.. I will answer if I have it... have been getting more spam on that one lately...

 

[brett]

We have not had a land line for years.

I absolutely will not answer calls that from numbers I do not know/recognize.. Why bother?

If it it is important the person will leave a message. Close to 100 percent of my unanswered calls have not, fortunately, left a message.

 

[Retire2023]

I don't answer unknown callers, however, DH is a shooting instructor and often has potential clients calling his cell. He does answer unknown calls.

 

[jim584672]

Most of the time no. But if I do I say hello if I don't hear an immediate answer I hang up. Those call centers take a few seconds before they can answer, so I know the call is junk.

 

[sengsational]

A couple have mentioned this process. I guess that seems like it would take more time than answering and hanging up if it’s not someone you want to talk to. I know pretty quick if it’s not a call that’s relevant to me.

The problem that the transcript solves is it forces the caller to provide essential information up-front; if they get you listening, then they obfuscate the who they are / what they want. And it's near impossible to get them to quickly divulge who they are and what they want. So you have to listen to the pitch before deciding it's not a legit call. So not only is the transcript quicker, it's much less stressful.

 

[skipro33]

I keep a sound track of a car crash on my phone. When I answer the phone and it's a spam call, I'll talk as if interested, then shout out, and play the crash audio and hang up. My hope is that they think they are responsible, since I would not have been distracted by the call and not had an accident had they not called.

 

[big-papa]

DW and I ignore phone calls from numbers we don't know. In fact, we have set our landline voicemail to pick up after five rings because most robodialers hang up after four. Are we alone in this? I bet we aren't.

Alone? Quite the opposite. I assume that most people now no longer answer the phone if they don't recognize the number. If it's really important, they'll leave voicemail.

Cheers

 

[big-papa]

Same here, but a potential problem we ran into is that some people apparently just do not leave voicemails and do not realize how many people do not as a rule answer calls from unknown numbers.

In our case, someone from the office of the anesthesiologist we had never spoken with but who was scheduled to assist with my wife's surgery called my wife from a number other than the surgeon's office number, and of course my wife did not answer. The caller wanted to contact her to let her know the surgery she was scheduled for in two days was going to be canceled, due to something they saw in her health record (at essentially the last minute). They called several times that day but never left a voice message, perhaps due to confidentiality concerns--we never did find out the reason. It was incomprehensible to us that they did not leave a simple message saying they were from so-and-so's office and to please call them back immediately. The surgeon's office called the next day--the day before the scheduled surgery--to let us know of the cancelation. That was the only phone number my wife had, and she was expecting a call confirming the surgery was on, so of course she had the phone handy and answered it.

Off the topic and just complaining now, but would you believe that the person who called from the surgeon's office to tell my wife the surgery was canceled did not have information as to the reason for the cancelation? My wife had to contact the surgeon directly to find out, and it was then that she connected the dots and realized that the multiple calls from the unknown number were from the anesthesiologist's office.

If they didn't leave a voicemail and you didn't recognize the number, how did you eventually find out that it was from the anesthesiologist's office who was calling to let you know of the cancellation?

Cheers.

 

[Lorenzo]

If they didn't leave a voicemail and you didn't recognize the number, how did you eventually find out that it was from the anesthesiologist's office who was calling to let you know of the cancellation?

Cheers.

What I meant in my last sentence about "connecting the dots" was that when my wife finally spoke with the surgeon, he explained that it was canceled due to the anesthesiologist's concerns and asked if she had spoken with the anesthesiologist. My wife replied that no, she hadn't, and if the anesthesiologist had phoned she wouldn't have picked up the call because she doesn't answer unknown numbers. Then she recalled the repeated calls from the unknown number a few days earlier and, on a hunch that it was the anesthesiologist, called it to see who answered. Sure enough, it was.

I should add that it's possible that the anesthesiologist might not have canceled the surgery if he had gotten ahold of my wife that day (or better yet, earlier), because a discussion with my wife about her medical history might have allayed his concerns. We did not ask about this, as the surgery was rescheduled for a couple of weeks later, and it was water under the bridge to us.

In summary, it was a bit of a cluster due to the unknown number and failure to leave a voicemail.

 

[lemming]

I hate waiting on a repairman or a delivery because I have to get over to the phone.
I wonder if I am missing Political Poll calls. That's why I doubt there numbers.